Thanks to the pandemic and my unwillingness to risk going to a barber for more than a year, my hair is longer than it has ever been. To keep it under control, I have taken to gathering it into a ponytail at the back of my head and securing it with a rubber band. But I never manage to get all the hair straight through the rubber band. I end up with a clump of hair at the back of my head that feels more like a knot than a tail. So I have a top knot.
That condition made me remember one of the favorite stories from my youth. I found a full version of it on the Fish Hooks website, to wit:
A country parson objected to the latest fashion among the women of his congregation who would tie up their long hair in a little bun atop their heads. The pastor interpreted the Apostle Paul’s remark that “a woman’s hair is her glory” (1 Corinthians 11:15) to mean that they had a moral duty to wear their hair loose and flowing. But when he tried to convince the women, they merely laughed. So the pastor delivered a thunderous sermon on how Jesus Himself had commanded: “Top Knot Come Down!”–which he swore were His exact words in the Bible.
The pastor was quoting the words of Jesus found in the King James Version translation of Matthew 24:17: “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house.”
I’m going to defy that pastor. My top knot will come down when I’m good and ready—probably when I finally can get my hair cut.
’Til then, my top knot will not come down.
Tom Glenn, Writer 